It doesn’t have to be more rare than Earth metals, supply just has to be more limited than demand. Given the rising use cases, and the global population, it’s only a question of time until economic viability. Especially in cases, like now, where supply is constrained by political tensions. It becomes a national security issue to not have a sovereign supply. Lunar mining is cheaper than a resource war.
large scale mining of rare earths, deuterium, and other metals is viable.
Science fiction.
To mine anything of value would mean it has to be rarer than on earth, and that still means generating millions of tonnes of ore and smelting and processing it…in a zero atmosphere environment, with not large power sources, then somehow do this cheaper than on Earth, with 1000x more danger. It would have to start with building habitats for thousands.
The amount of bullshit on moon mining is huge even by Elon Musk standards.
Skyrmir@lemmy.world 1 day ago
WoodScientist@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The point of mining things in space is not to bring them back to Earth.